Ugh, really! Chloe Liden, are you a beast!

A wave of intense regret suddenly washed over her.

If she had known he would look for her so seriously, she definitely wouldn’t have caused such an accident.

But even that wasn’t certain.

No matter how much she thought about it, her state last night was not normal.

It wasn’t as if she had taken mind-altering drugs, to the point where she couldn’t understand or interpret how she had committed such a major, once-in-a-lifetime blunder.

Ah, wait a moment!

She drank alcohol yesterday, didn’t she?

The inn she stayed at yesterday was in Arne, a small town about halfway between Boergen, where her home was, and Roizen, where the duke’s residence was. To be precise, it was built alone in an oddly ambiguous location, quite far from the outskirts of town.

Since it took a full day to get from her hometown to the duke’s residence, she always stopped halfway and stayed overnight. Yesterday was her third visit.

Perhaps because of its location, there weren’t many guests and there was a back door, so it was the perfect place to avoid people’s eyes, dress as a man, and leave at dawn if you just paid the lodging fee in advance.

That’s why she chose it as her accommodation.

Yesterday, as always, there were no other guests in the inn’s first-floor restaurant when she went down for dinner.

Unlike previous visits, the elderly couple who owned the place were particularly insistent on offering her alcohol they said they had brewed themselves.

They were so eager, and since she was the only guest, it was difficult to refuse.

In truth, thinking it was the last day of her vacation before returning to the duke’s residence, she wasn’t entirely opposed to the idea of getting drunk.

The guilt of having to ask Calcus to take care of her mother, and the burden of having to spend another month in male disguise until her next vacation. She wondered if drinking might help her forget, even if just for a moment.

Despite never having drunk much before and not knowing her alcohol tolerance.

Could there have been some aphrodisiac in that alcohol?

She had heard rumors of such crimes. At parties where drinks were served, people would secretly spike drinks with aphrodisiacs for a night of pleasure.

But she soon shook her head.

Her actions were so incomprehensible that she was becoming suspicious of everything.

When she actually started drinking the alcohol offered by the elderly couple, they even gave her chocolate, saying it contained ingredients that detoxify alcohol.

If there had been something in the drink, it would have had to be those kind old people who put it there.

In such a quiet place with hardly any visitors, what benefit would there be in committing such a crime? Those seemingly naive and frail old couple? Why yesterday of all days? To her, who had no connection to them?

No, it didn’t make sense.

It was illogical to think that those kind old people, who even gave her chocolate to prevent her from getting drunk, had anticipated that she would appear there yesterday and drink, and committed such an act.

So it couldn’t have been drug intoxication.

Ah! Come to think of it, she had forgotten about that medicine.

Thinking about drugs, she suddenly remembered the medicine she hadn’t taken.

For several years, her mother had made sure she took medicine every season.

She had asked several times because her mother only gave it to her, not to her brother Clyne, but her mother just said it was a nutritional supplement.

There were no particular symptoms when she took it, so she thought that must be the case, but this time she hadn’t taken that medicine.

Because of the accident three or four months ago, right after she last took the medicine, her mother had been hovering between life and death and was now constantly bedridden. Far from being able to give her medicine, she was in a state where even her own medicine had to be administered by others.

Anyway, she hadn’t taken any special medicine yesterday. There was medicine she hadn’t taken, though.

Rather than her taking medicine, it would make more sense if the duke had taken something.

Seeing how drastically he changed.

No one could have imagined that Duke Hugrey Ulpaz would turn into a beast in bed.

The young head of the Ulpaz ducal family, which had produced Sword Masters for generations, was recognized as the most outstanding Sword Master in the history of the Elaion Empire, but in fact, more famous than his ability was his appearance, which was so beautiful it could take one’s breath away.

If he had the abilities of a Sword Master, he could have been a bit ugly.

He possessed a beauty that was second to none. The fact that he was considered the most outstanding Sword Master even including the era when the now-extinct beastkin ruled over humans was overshadowed by the praise for his appearance.

And if a Sword Master was that beautiful, shouldn’t his personality at least be terrible for the world to be fair?

But the world wasn’t fair, and the duke maintained a balanced personality that, while not particularly friendly or gentle, never lost its manners and dignity.

He was on the verge of becoming the most perfect human being currently existing in the Elaion Empire.

However, as if even the gods were jealous of his perfection, there was one rumor attached to him that was fatal enough to offset all his fame.

‘Duke Hugrey Ulpaz is impotent.’

This was the rumor attached to the duke. The nickname that had become a proper noun: ‘The Impotent Duke’.

Of course, the rumor wasn’t this fatal from the beginning.

At first, despite his strange aversion to women to the point where one might wonder if even the livestock in his house were all male, the rumor only went as far as ‘he dislikes women, hates them, despises them.’

As if the fruit hanging on a tree too high for anyone to reach was too tempting, but he couldn’t bear to see it fall to the ground.

Perhaps because they couldn’t bear to spread a more severe rumor that would cause despair to the numerous women of the kingdom.

However, as his excessive fastidiousness, not allowing approach from any woman, continued for years, the rumor gradually evolved into ‘he practices male homosexuality.’

As if trying to limit those who would fall into despair to just women.

But just because he kept women at a distance didn’t mean the duke showed any signs of homosexuality.

Rather, he became uncomfortable even when men approached too closely.

That’s why Chloe always received instructions from him while standing several steps away.

Eventually, after about another year in this state, the rumor changed to ‘his important part is broken’.

Completely and equally frustrating all men and women in the kingdom.

Broken, that is, impotent.

Impotent…

Ha!

How ridiculous!

It wasn’t a breakdown that couldn’t be revived, but a breakdown that wouldn’t die all night.

No, no!

Don’t think about it.

She desperately tried to suppress the memory of madness that was trying to surface in her mind.

She needed to forget about last night’s major disaster as soon as possible and focus on the present.

Only then could she safely repay her debt and escape from this yoke of male disguise.

Although the Ulpaz ducal family was known as a ‘dream workplace’ due to its exceptionally high wages compared to any other job, in fact, Chloe had no intention of working here for a long time.

Because she didn’t meet the crucial condition for employment.

The Ulpaz ducal family had strange employment regulations that couldn’t be seen in other workplaces, and because of that, the term ‘dream workplace’ only applied to men.

Article 1

Paragraph 1: Must be male.

Paragraph 2: Must not bring women into the duke’s residence for any reason, or create any cause for women to enter.

Paragraph 3: If either Paragraph 1 or 2 is violated, the total amount of salary already paid and a penalty must be repaid. The amount of the penalty is equal to the total amount of salary already paid.]

These were truly strange regulations, and the reason why the ducal family’s salary was significantly higher was all because of these regulations.

Since they didn’t hire any female employees at all, even work that was considered strictly the domain of female employees had to be done entirely by male employees in the Ulpaz ducal family.

Not only that, the additional penalty clause on top of the paid salary gave pressure even to those who had no reason to violate the contract.

Therefore, of course, Chloe, being a woman, couldn’t work at the ducal family.

At first, she had no intention of doing so.

Nevertheless, the reason she ended up working in this household was because her twin brother Clyne, who had been hired as an employee of the ducal family, died just before his first day of work.

Of course, at first, she intended to inform the ducal family of her brother’s death and that he couldn’t start work.

However, she soon had to change her mind.

Because on the day her brother died, her mother also fell into a critical condition.

To save her mother, who was hovering between life and death, she needed medicine made with the magic core of a magical beast that was thought to be extinct.

That medicine was so expensive that ordinary people couldn’t even dream of affording it, and it was exactly equal to the one-year salary that her brother was scheduled to receive upon being hired by the Ulpaz ducal family.

In the end, Chloe had no other choice. Except to disguise herself as a man and pretend to be Clyne to get the job.

In the urgent situation, she didn’t have the luxury to look for another job, but decisively, only the ducal family could pay a year’s salary in advance.

However, while the option of male disguise was unavoidable, it wasn’t that she didn’t want to avoid it.

Having to deceive about one’s gender, how uncomfortable and nerve-wracking it was.

So naturally, she planned to quit the job at the duke’s residence as soon as she paid off all the money.

For that, she had to somehow endure well for at least a year.

But…

A one-night mistake with the duke.

The one-year salary she had received in advance had long since disappeared on buying the treatment.

Not even leaving enough for the ongoing treatment costs for her mother who hadn’t recovered enough to get up.

In the end, even the daily treatment costs were being covered by Calcus instead…

In this situation, if she had to spit out the already spent one-year salary and an equal amount in penalties?

No way!

It was an assumption that made her heart stop just imagining it.

To the extent that she absolutely must not be found out to be a woman!

Moreover, it might not just be a matter of money.